Pinnacle Peak Patio - 10426 E Jomax RD, Scottsdale

The Pinnacle Peak Patio is one of the few places one can walk to from the Four Seasons resort. I drove, though. It is situated on the road to Pinnacle Peak park in a little shopping area. They have a strict "no necktie" policy as is evidenced by the number of ties stapled to the rafters in the restaurant. Their website boasts over a million ties have been severed from unsuspecting diners. The atmosphere there is relaxed and the staff is very friendly. Both nights I went they had live music. The first night was a lone singer, but the second night was a band.

They have outside seating (the patio) but since it was monsoon season, and there were threatening clouds, I decided to dine inside.

I ordered a half-rack of baby back ribs, which came with a salad, corn on the cob, and baked beans. I have astounded people in the past with my ability to clean all the meat off  of pork ribs with just a knife and fork (hands-free). The ribs here were so tender that I did not need the knife!! All the food was very tasty!

There is a little gift shop adjacent to the restaurant that had a nice selection of jewelry made by locals, as well as some of the usual touristy stuff.

http://www.pppatio.com/

Chuy's Mesquite Broiler - 12235 Cave Creek RD, Phoenix

We stumbled upon this restaurant after finding several places in the area were closed (it was Sunday) and I am glad we did! It is a fun place with a surfing theme. This particular place had $2 Margharitas at all times, which were quite tasty. The food prices were surprisingly low, and the food was quite good. We got the quarter chicken special which included a couple of sides and all the chips & salsa we wanted. This place is part of a chain with several restaurants in Arizona and California.

http://www.bajachuys.com/

White Chocolate Grill - 7000 E. Mayo BV, Phoenix

The White Chocolate Grill Bar




 This restaurant was recommended by our concierge. We did not see any white chocolate roasting over the coals, but the ambiance was great and the food was excellent. Their house specialty was Tomato Gin Soup and it was some of the best soup I have ever eaten. It had tomatoes, cream, mushrooms, and bacon. They added the gin right before they served it, so it didn't lose any of its alcohol content. They only serve this to customers over 21, so you may get carded.

Four Seasons At Troon - The Pools

The Main Pool

While Judy was in her conference at this resort, I spent many hours at poolside. It was one of the sacrifices I made for our travel business :-)

The resort had recently completed a million dollar refurbishment of the pool area and it showed! There are three pools: a wading pool, a family pool, and an adults-only pool. The family pool shown at right is the largest of the three. The temperature of the water was refreshingly brisk, but not uncomfortably cold.There is also a hot tub which is nice for the cooler evenings.

The Wading Pool

The area is surrounded by several cabanas and lounge chairs. The cabanas are free to use and provide much needed shelter from the sun. As the day heats up, they turn on misters to cool the area down a bit. The staff there are available to help you set up the cabana to your liking and bring a pitcher of water. They make sure that everyone stays hydrated. Periodically throughout the day they bring around free treats like fresh fruit or sammples of smoothies. There is also food and drink available for purchase from the poolside restaurant. The staff is happy to take your order and bring your food to you.

Four Seasons at Troon - The Room

The view from our deck!

Sunset from our deck!

Our room was what they call a "Deluxe Casita". It was 500 Square feet and had a king bed. There was also a sitting area with a large screen TV and a gas fireplace. The room opened out to a very nice deck with a spectacular view of Crescent Butte. It was breathtaking. The desert came right up to our deck and we could see critters of all sorts scampering about. It is amazing just how much life there is in the desert.

 

North end of our room

We were about a five minute walk from the main building and lobby. It was very quiet there, we rarely heard our neighbors. The bathroom was pretty much the mirror-image of the one we had at the Venetian (no TV, though). The housekeeping had a policy that I had never encountered before. If you leave the do not disturb tag out, they will make up your room anyway at 2:00, unless you call them to make other arrangements. This is good for someone like me who sometimes forgets to take in the tag, but a bit of an inconvenience for someone who really does not want to be disturbed. Maybe they should have a second "I really mean it" tag to put out.

South end of our room

The room had a nice sized walk-in closet so our my junk was mostly out of sight :-) There were robes and slippers for us to use there, which came in handy for the journey to the pool.

The ice machine was in a little building adjacent to the building our room was in. Also in that building was a free washer/dryer as well as free soap and fabric softener. We really took advantage of that! I wish more places had that feature. 

All in all this was a very comfortable place to stay. I would highly recommend staying here.

The Four Seasons at Troon in Scottsdale, AZ

While we were in Scottsdale, we stayed at the Four Seasons resort at Troon. This resort is outstanding, and, since we traveled in the off-season (also known as the monsoon season) we got a fantastic price. It is located about 30 miles North of the Phoenix airport. They have a shuttle, but as I mentioned in my previous post, a rental car would give you more freedom to explore the area. Not much is within walking distance...especially with triple-digit temperatures.

They have valet parking (for a fee) and plenty of self-parking (for a lesser fee). We did the self-parking to keep our car conveniently located by our room.

The Main Entrance with Pinnacle Peak in the background

It is designed to blend in nicely with its surroundings and there is an abundance of native plants surrounding the campus as well as critters running around. I had not seen quail since I was growing up in Eastern Washington...I had forgotten how cute they are. We also saw jack rabbits, lizards, and raptors. It is amazing how much life there is in the desert.

The view from the lobby

There was a $5 resort fee, which is quite reasonable compared to other places I have stayed. This covers the tips, which is makes it really worthwhile. The service here is outstanding. From the time we arrived to the time we got to the room, four people helped us out and it left a very favorable first impression with us.

It is located next to Pinnacle Peak State Park. They have daily guided hikes there from the resort. Take lots of water!

Our Room (the dark balcony just left of center)

Be sure to pick up an activity calendar from the front desk. They have several activities for adults and children. Some of the fitness activities have a fee. We went to the wine tasting, tequila tasting, and the Margarita demonstration. All those were free as well as informative and fun. I think I am becoming a tequila connoisseur. Unfortunately we missed the chocolate tasting.

Flying To Phoenix, Driving To Scottsdale

Judy went to a conference in Scottsdale, AZ so I tagged along to familiarize myself with the area and blog about my findings.

I recently changed to an Alaska Air Visa card that has the Washington State University logo (I went to college there way back when.) As part of their welcome package, they sent me a $50 companion fare coupon as well as two boardroom passes. We put those to use getting to Phoenix. With the companion fare coupon we saved about $250. We also availed ourselves of the Alaska Airlines boardroom passes, which worked out very nicely since our flight was delayed about an hour.

The flight itself was good. It takes about 3 hours to get from Seattle to Phoenix. Not much to report there.

Upon arrival, since we had only carry-ons, we headed directly to the rental car shuttle. That took us to a huge rental car area. There were several rental car companies represented there. We rented a car from Enterprise through our website and paid just a little more than if we would have used the shuttle from the resort ($30 per person each way). There isn't much within walking distance of the resort (in the summer heat especially) so with a rental car, we were able to enjoy more of what the area has to offer.

The metropolitan area is quite expansive and, for the first couple of days we managed to put about a hundred miles a day on the car just sight seeing, shopping, and dining. The driving was not too bad, though. Most of the time we were on the freeways and most of the places we went to were on arterials that ran about 45mph. The traffic has been fairly light (compared to Seattle) for the most part, but we have avoided rush hour.

There is public transportation (buses and light rail) in the metropolitan area, but our resort is outside the area served by it, so we weren't able to give it a try this trip.